By Ayodele Abere
The Programme Manager, Advocacy for Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI), Mr. Kolawole Jayeoba, has urged the people of Ekiti State to always have a correct perspective about people with disabilities.
Jayeoba, stated this while speaking on Women and Girls with Disabilities at a workshop in Ado-Ekiti, the State capital.
The Programme Manager, pointed out that no woman is safe untill all women are safe. He advised that people with disabilities shouldn’t be viewed as charity people, that’s people you need to give a token of money as if they’re beggers.That is wrong, said the facilitator.
“We should not see persons with disabilities as a burden but as part of the society as they have something to contribute in the development of our nation”.
The Programme Manager who explained that a lot of women with disabilities face a number of challenges suggested having a documentary package on the level of discriminations being suffered by the women and girls with disabilities in the society, especially in health facilities.According to him,
“our women don’t have access to the hospital, there are no ramps and where there are ramps, there are no sign language interpreters, where there is sign language interpreter, the attitude of the health providers are not welcoming.
“Ekiti State has signed into law the act that protects persons with disabilities but the act has not been implemented as it suppose to be.
The State Coordinator, Advocacy for Women with Disabilities Initiative (AWWDI) Mrs.Ibitoye Helen Oluwatoyin, said women and girls with disabilities are human beings with double problems. She advocated for a society that would be fair to them in terms of accessibility and others.
In his own reaction, the Executive Director, Disability Not A Barrier Initiative (DNABI) and General Secretary of Persons with disabilities in Ekiti state, Mr. Olajide Funsho Benjamin, called on the general public to show empathy to persons with disabilities instead of sympathy.
He said this should be done by putting necessary facilities in place in their private residence and public places to ensure that persons with disabilities have access.
While urging the Governor of the state to appoint persons with disabilities to the office of Disabilities Affairs as stated in the disability law of the State, Olajide noted that, the current Executive Secretary of the office is not a person with disability which according to him, is affecting the kind of service that persons with disabilities in Ekiti state ought to be getting from the office.
“Though, we recognize their effort but of course, it’s not going as it should because he who wears the shoe knows where it pinches”, Olajide said.
The General Secretary opined that things should be done the way it should in accordance with the law of the State,
“We are calling on the disabilities loving Governor of Ekiti State, His Excellency, Abayomi Oyebanji, to look into the matter by appointing a person with disability as Executive Secretary. If this is done, it will signal the total inclusion that persons with disabilities are asking for”.
A Director of Commercial and Corporate Law, Ministry of Justice, Ekiti State, Barrister Kolawole Yetunde, speaking on the legal aspect, said the prohibition law against discrimination of persons with disabilities was passed in the State 2009 and that another law was also passed in 2020.
She said persons with disabilities being humans have their rights protected under the constitution and that they should be treated with dignity as she promised to ensure that the law protecting persons with disabilities is fully implemented.
However, the State Governor, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji ably represented by the SSA on Community Communications, Mrs Mary Oso-omotoso, who expressed worry over what he called marginalisation between the physically challenged persons and the people in the society, assured that his administration will continue to give adequate priority to the welfare of the PWD.
At the workshop were; Journalists, legal practitioner, government officials and members of PWD
